Climate change adaptation: news headlines

2012

James Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He argues that the science of climate change is clear and that politics needs to follow. He says that 'Every major national science academy in the world has reported that global warming is real, caused mostly by humans, and requires urgent action. The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait — we can't wait any longer to avoid the worst and be judged immoral by coming generations'.

Following a study into climate change adaptation for the Climate Change Committee, this article asks how much faith can be put climate change predictions and is it worth spending serious money acting on them?

Residents across Bradford are being asked to complete a flood awareness survey as the council works out how it would deal with a potential disaster. Drainage experts are now working with specialists across Europe on two major projects designed to deal with serious flooding.

The Environment Agency has revealed how Cardiff would look without any flood defences. Images show how the Millennium Stadium, Bute Park and Ninian Park would all be submerged if not for flood protection.

Roads built to the same standards as the scorching south of France; fish moved from the overheated Lake District to cooler waters in Scotland; lighthouses threatened by rising seas. From measures in use already to seemingly far-fetched scenarios for the future, these are some of the findings in the first batch of climate adaptation plans submitted to the environment ministry Defra.

The Met Office and the University of East Anglia have today released provisional global temperature figures for 2010, which show the year to be the second warmest on record. With a mean temperature of 14.50 °C, 2010 becomes the second warmest year on record, after 1998. The record is maintained by the Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit at UEA.

Sustainability should be integrated into corporate strategy and made central to core business policies and practices. There is also a need for companies to look beyond carbon and energy management when making strategic risk and opportunity assessments around sustainability. Failing to do so could restrict the agility of the business and undermine competitiveness in the long term.

A new computer software package developed in the US puts a financial value on the ecosystem services trees perform, from reduced air pollution to the amount of carbon dioxide removed... can it now work in the UK?

The NGO Practical Action have highlighted their work with a photo exhibition of images looking at how families in developing countries are coping with climate change titled "Adaptation against the odds: enabling communities to cope with climate change".

A Met Office study on how climate change could affect the frequency of extreme droughts in the UK has found a range of possibilities — the majority of them showing such droughts will become more common.

In the heart of Africa's savannah lies a city that is a model of sustainable development. Its buttressed towers are built entirely from natural, biodegradable materials. Its inhabitants live and work in quarters that are air-conditioned and humidity-regulated, without consuming a single watt of electricity.

A new United Nations funding group is set up to begin providing financial assistance to developing countries in meeting the challenges associated with adapting to climate change. With threats including sea level rise and water shortage, some developing countries face real challenges if climate change intensifies as projected.

Researchers at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado have developed a model that demonstrates that painting roofs in cities white could cool surrounding air by around 0.6ºC. Alongside measures such as increasing green cover in cities, such technological solutions could help cities remain comfortable in a changing climate.

Sea level rise is a real threat to some parts of the UK. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) have proposed a number of far reaching options for coastal defence. These focus on managed retreat, designing habitable flood defences and ‘attacking’ the problem by building out into the sea.

As these pictures from the Mekong Delta demonstrate, adaptation to climate change is taking place across the globe. For example, in the Mekong Delta farmers are changing cropping cycles and planting different varieties of rice to adapt to a changing climate.

The Environment Agency warns that climate change poses a real threat to British wildlife due to rising temperatures. Impacts include allowing invasive species to move into the country and changing species breeding cycles. Adaptation responses to support British wildlife will be necessary.